Arab and Jewish Education Systems in Israel: Differences, Disparities, and Challenges. A Comparative Review of Structure, Funding, and Outcomes in Local Authorities

The education system in Israel is characterized by a centralized structure where the Ministry of Education sets the national curriculum and standards, while local authorities are responsible for the day-to-day management of schools within their jurisdictions. The education system in the Arab sector in Israel plays a central role in the social, economic, and cultural development of the Arab population. Arab local authorities in Israel play a significant role in managing and influencing the local education system, but at the same time, they face unique challenges arising from budgetary, social, and political limitations. This article focuses on Arab local authorities that manage separate schools for the Arab population, and examines their influence on the education system in their communities, while addressing the unique budgetary, political, and social challenges they face.

This paper focuses on the state of non-formal education in the local Arab authorities in Israel. Non-formal education encompasses a wide range of educational and developmental activities that take place outside the formal school system, including youth movements, after-school programs, community centers, and various civic and cultural initiatives. While the importance of non-formal education in promoting social inclusion, personal growth, and civic engagement is increasingly recognized, significant disparities persist between different population groups in Israel. The Arab society in Israel faces unique challenges in this domain, such as limited infrastructure, inadequate funding, cultural mismatches, and a shortage of trained professionals. These factors contribute to reduced access and participation in non-formal educational frameworks. Despite these obstacles, numerous grassroots initiatives and community-led programs have emerged within the Arab sector, aiming to empower youth and foster social change. Drawing on recent data, policy documents, and field-based examples, this paper reviews the structural gaps, identifies key barriers, and highlights the potential of non-formal education as a transformative tool for advancing equity and cohesion in a diverse society.

This article examines the relative impact of internal and external factors on the financial decline of local Arab municipalities in Israel. We employ a unique case study to demonstrate that the negative relationship between local management policies and local financial crises is stronger than any other relationship; in addition, this relationship is expected to hold for other local authorities in Israel and for local authorities in Western countries. The new theoretical approach developed in this study indicates that, with respect to local authorities, the “local management approach” more often explains a financial crisis than other approaches.

This article examines the appointment of education department directors in Arab local authorities in Israel, focusing on the influence of hamula (clan) politics. Drawing upon court hearings and verdicts, the study reveals that hamula politics significantly impact these appointments, leading to procedural irregularities, flexible interpretations of qualification requirements, and the prevalence of extraneous political considerations. The analysis highlights a disconnect between state regulations and local practices, driven by internal political pressures and familial ties. This research underscores the complex interplay between national policies, local governance, and traditional social structures within the Arab education system in Israel, demonstrating how hamula politics undermine merit-based appointments and perpetuate systemic challenges.

The financial crisis affecting many of the local authorities in Israel has a significant influence on their ability to supply municipal services of an appropriate amount and quality. So far, studies have been addressed to the financial crisis from a political approach by discussing aspects such as the problematic interrelation between central and local governments together with resource allocation. In this paper we investigate the financial crisis of many local authorities in Israel from a strategic point of view. However, this is by no means to argue that other approaches such as institutional and political ones are not important. Rather, the paper investigates whether the financial crisis affecting many Israeli local authorities is a result of their own strategies and practices.Specifically, we have used the resource‐based approach to explore the nature of their joint crises and the potential strategic responses that the local authorities should adopt in order to move into a more favourable state. In particular, we examine three resource‐based systems: customer‐oriented, organizational culture, and human resources, as the strategic roots of this crisis. We also examine the way they could produce a sustainable competitive advantage and could lead local authorities from the present position to a better one. The article recommends that the heads of local authorities should move to a resource‐based strategy in order to perform both more efficiently and effectively.

This study investigates the theme of performance measurement among local authorities in Israel. Using a broad approach, it deals conceptually with performance measurement and financial performance of local authorities in Israel as compared to several Western countries, and explores the implications for accountability and public trust in government. This study proposes and empirically tests a model for measuring the financial performance of local authorities in Israel. It demonstrates how to design effective performance measures in two areas: (a) financial strength/weakness, and (b) level of municipal development of the local authorities. By so doing, the article suggests advancing performance measurement in the governmental sector by using financial data from annual financial reports.

This study addresses fiscal distress in local authorities in Israel and around the world, and provides an in-depth analysis of the city of Bnei Brak from 1994 to 2003. When the city of Bnei Brak grappled unsuccessfully with fiscal distress, the Ministry of the Interior appointed a Convened Committee (CC; Va'adah Kruah) to handle the crisis. This study explores the methods and solution used by the government to extricate the authority from bankruptcy, while examining the sources and repercussions of this decision. The findings show that the CC solution was borne of necessity, due to the gravity of the financial crisis and the fact that the government had no other way of bailing out the city. However, the situation in Bnei Brak did not improve even after the CC was appointed, which challenges the very efficacy of the solution. This forms the basis for a discussion of the complexities of resolving the fiscal distress of localities in Israel.

This study explores whether bridging and bonding social capital differ in their impacts on government performance at the local level and the extent to which these impacts vary between localities exhibiting differing socioeconomic resources. The study is based on an analysis of 256 local authorities in Israel. The findings show that bridging and bonding social capital do differ in their respective effects on government performance and that the nature of the relationship of each type of capital with government performance varies by the community's socioeconomic profile. Poor communities with high densities of bridging social capital were characterized by lower deficits as a percentage of total municipal budgets, more accurate expenditure forecasts and greater spending on services per capita.

This study examines fiscal disparities among local authorities in Israel between 1972 and 1995. It argues that political and fiscal decentralisation increase disparities. Analysis is based on regression models and ranking of local authorities according to selected financial measures. Results confirm weakness of small municipalities in a system that lacks strong regional administration or sufficient inter‐municipal co‐operation. Arab municipalities are weak and suffer from discrimination, of a decreasing level, in the allocation of grants. Peripherally located municipalities weakened, but were compensated through equalisation grants. Decentralisation in Israel was an unplanned transition towards an ‘American’ self‐government model. It led to increased fiscal disparities directly, and indirectly by encouraging municipal fragmentation, urban sprawl and competition over tax‐generating development. Policy implications focus on the allocation of equalisation grants and on indirect measures to alleviate fiscal disparities, such as curbing further municipal fragmentation and the implementation of local tax‐base sharing mechanisms.

Social and environmental factors affecting the amount of property taxes collected by local authorities in Israel

This study explores the relationship between prior financial performance and perceived organizational reputation of local authorities in Israel. in the business sector, studies have indicated that prior financial performance, such as ROA, is found to be a good predictor of corporate reputation (McGuire, Sundgren and Schneeweiss, 1988; Hammond and Slocum, Jr., 1996). the local government in Israel has been experiencing an ongoing financial crisis. However, while some local authorities have inferior financial performance, others have managed to attain a superior financial position. Unfortunately, the established argument that the influence of past financial performance yields the core nature of the reputation construct has not been tested in the public sector, particularly among local authorities. The results of testing this construct among 112 Israeli local authorities (42.6% of the target population) for 1997 and 1998 showed that only two financial measures remained in the equation for each year. in 1997, the financial measures were the collecting efficiency ratio and the income-to-expenses ratio in the regular budget. These two measures explained 11.6 percent of a local authority's perceived organizational reputation in the year 2000. in 1998, the financial measures were the collecting efficiency ratio and the per-resident surplus (deficit) ratio. These measures explained 15.5 percent of a local authority's perceived organizational reputation in 2000. the results may lead local authorities to acknowledge the importance of being in a superior financial position in order to have a favorable organizational reputation.

There is increasing pressure on local authorities to restructure themselves to meet current expectations from the public. Multilevel governance has emerged as one method for such restructuring. Using the results of a survey conducted among 1733 residents of local authorities in Israel, we explore the effects of three specific multilevel governance reforms – the merging, disaggregation and clustering of local government authorities – on residents’ assessments about local governance and democracy. Our findings underscore the importance of public support for the structural reform. Those who become involved in soft reforms involving bottom-up groups and voluntary coalitions that cluster together are more likely to trust their local authority, feel it responds to their needs satisfactorily and listens to them. However, the more support they express, the more their perceptions are attenuated. In contrast, residents of local authorities that amalgamated with other communities that then went through hard reforms, such as merging and disaggregation involving up-scaling and top-down reforms, had fewer positive opinions about these issues. Only residents who strongly favoured the merger had positive perceptions about local governability and participation in decision-making and were satisfied with local services and trusted the local government. We discuss these findings and draw conclusions about their implications for local structural reforms in an era of local and regional governance.

Abstract. In recent years Israel's system of higher education has undergone a revolutionary transformation, leading to a sharp rise in the number of students, establishment of new degree-granting institutions, and shifts in legislation and policy. All these have changed dramatically, arousing profound public debates centering on one major issue: how to reconcile academic freedom, as manifested in a free academic market, with the regulation of higher education. This study explores three main processes that occurred within Israel's higher education system since the reform in the early 1990s and attempts to identify their causes. The research findings show that it was the government's decision to carry out a reform, rather than free market forces that led to the considerable rise in the number of applicants for academic studies. However, free market sources were found to affect admission terms to the various departments, guided by trends of demand and supply.Key words: Public Policy, Higher Education, Israel, free market forces, regulationJEL classification: A2, I2IntroductionIsrael's system of higher education has undergone an extensive process of development since the state was established. During this time, the number of degree-granting institutions has risen, with a concurrent rise in the number of undergraduate and graduate students1 (Davidovitch & Iram, 2014).The agency responsible for promoting this system is the Council for Higher Education (CHE), headed by the Minister of Education, and most of its members are high-ranking higher education professionals. In addition, the CHE operates the Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC).In 1993 these agencies, in charge of formulating higher education policy, initiated a reform2 that for about a decade led to an extensive transformation of structured opportunities for acquiring an academic education in Israel. As a result of this reform, Israel's system of higher education changed dramatically, and since the early 1990s the universities were joined by many colleges, creating a more extensive and open framework of higher education encompassing a wide range of fields.The meteoric growth in Israel's higher education had negative impacts on the system as well, with a decrease in the quality of academic instruction and learning, cutbacks in government funding of schools and universities, and a drop in the ratio of students to senior faculty, which had been about 16 students to each senior faculty member in the mid-1990s and dropped to 25 students per senior faculty member in the first decade of the 2000s.Moreover, the entrance of foreign extensions, the establishment of nine new privately-owned institutions, and the expansion of the number of public colleges led to fierce competition, with a detrimental effect on the quality of both students and faculty. All these had a negative impact on Israel's system of higher education and aroused criticism.This criticism of the quality of higher education and of the constant budgetary crises (voiced predominantly by the universities) led the government to establish a committee that in 2007 presented its recommendations on improving higher education (Volansky, 2007).In light of these trends and effects, the current study shall attempt to analyze the justifications underlying regulation processes undertaken within Israeli higher education and to determine whether these intervention processes stemmed from a preplanned and defined government policy or whether they were simply responses to actions and failures of the free market. First, however, we shall present the basic justifications for the regulation processes undertaken towards the activities of the free market.Fundamental justifications for regulationThe fundamental justifications for regulation processes derive from the nature of the government's activities vis-a-vis the free market. Advocates of government intervention in activities of the free market offer several justifications for regulatory actions:1. …

Teaching Quality and Student Outcomes: Academic Achievement and Educational Engagement in Rural Northwest China Xuehui An Emily Hannum Tanja Sargent A central task of educational researchers has been to uncover factors that improve student academic achievement. Research in both developed and developing nations during the past few decades has analysed the links between educational outcomes and school physical resources, teacher quality and children's demographic and family background.1 Importantly, research on teacher and school effects in developing countries has focused on factors such as human capital, economic resources and physical infrastructure, [End Page 309] the so-called input factors in the "black box" production function model of school outcomes. Fewer studies have focused on the "softer" classroom process factors that might be seen as important mechanisms of the production function, such as teaching style, the quality of teacher-student interactions and student academic engagement. This study investigates the sensitivity of academic achievement and educational engagement to student experiences in the classroom: teaching style, teacher-student interactions and classroom environment. This study is first placed in the theoretical context of comparative educational research, then in the context of recent education reform initiatives in China. Next follows a description of the data which came from a survey of primary school students, teachers and principals in rural Northwest China that was carried out in the summer of 2000. Multivariate analyses of achievement and engagement are presented and the paper closes with a discussion of the implications of the findings. Framework and Hypotheses Research on Teacher Quality Disparate lines of research in the fields of sociology, demography and economics have considered community, school, classroom and family characteristics that predict children's educational outcomes.2 Across these disciplines, an important goal has been to produce policy-relevant insights on measurable aspects of school quality, including teacher quality, that significantly affect outcomes such as achievement. Much of this research stemmed from Stephen Heyneman's "Coleman Report for a Developing Country", and his subsequent research suggesting that the portion of the variance in achievement attributable to school quality, as opposed to family background, was generally much larger [End Page 310] in developing versus industrialised countries.3 Following Heyneman's lead, studies of school effects have been conducted in a wide range of developing countries, and many have found significant effects of school factors, net of family background, on achievement.4 However, recent work by David Baker and his colleagues has suggested that the Coleman effect — large family effects and small school effects — has spread throughout the world.5 Moreover, studies that have sought to identify effects of specific dimensions of teacher quality and other school inputs on academic achievement have produced decidedly mixed results for both developed and developing countries.6 For example, Hanushek has argued that US-based research yields no systematic evidence that teacher education, experience or salaries affect student performance.7 [End Page 311] Other studies have found stronger evidence of positive school and teacher effects on learning and labour market outcomes.8 In developing countries, a number of studies have found that teacher education and experience, as well as basic material resources do affect achievement, but other work has presented a mixed verdict on teacher and school effects.9 Limited Definition of Quality One problem with these studies has been the narrow conceptualisation of teacher quality. Too often, teacher quality has been conceptualised simplistically, as easy-to-measure background factors thought to be linked to productivity such as teacher education or training, teacher salary or teacher experience. While identifying a mix of easy-to-measure and easy-to-manipulate inputs has a great deal of theoretical and policy appeal, the lack of consistent findings suggests the value of exploring alternative approaches. One potentially fruitful approach is to look for quality not in the background attributes of teachers, but rather in classroom (or school) environments that they have a hand in creating. For example, one interesting...

A central task of educational researchers has been to uncover factors that improve student academic achievement. Research in both developed and developing nations during the past few decades has analysed the links between educational outcomes and school physical resources, teacher quality and children's demographic and family background. (1) Importantly, research on teacher and school effects in developing countries has focused on factors such as human capital, economic resources and physical infrastructure, the so-called input factors in the black box production function model of school outcomes. Fewer studies have focused on the softer classroom process factors that might be seen as important mechanisms of the production function, such as teaching style, the quality of teacher-student interactions and student academic engagement. This study investigates the sensitivity of academic achievement and educational engagement to student experiences in the classroom: teaching style, teacher-student interactions and classroom environment. This study is first placed in the theoretical context of comparative educational research, then in the context of recent education reform initiatives in China. Next follows a description of the data which came from a survey of primary school students, teachers and principals in rural Northwest China that was carried out in the summer of 2000. Multivariate analyses of achievement and engagement are presented and the paper closes with a discussion of the implications of the findings. Framework and Hypotheses Research on Teacher Quality Disparate lines of research in the fields of sociology, demography and economics have considered community, school, classroom and family characteristics that predict children's educational outcomes. (2) Across these disciplines, an important goal has been to produce policy-relevant insights on measurable aspects of school quality, including teacher quality, that significantly affect outcomes such as achievement. Much of this research stemmed from Stephen Heyneman's Report for a Developing Country, and his subsequent research suggesting that the portion of the variance in achievement attributable to school quality, as opposed to family background, was generally much larger in developing versus industrialised countries. (3) Following Heyneman's lead, studies of school effects have been conducted in a wide range of developing countries, and many have found significant effects of school factors, net of family background, on achievement. (4) However, recent work by David Baker and his colleagues has suggested that the Coleman effect--large family effects and small school effects --has spread throughout the world. (5) Moreover, studies that have sought to identify effects of specific dimensions of teacher quality and other school inputs on academic achievement have produced decidedly mixed results for both developed and developing countries. (6) For example, Hanushek has argued that US-based research yields no systematic evidence that teacher education, experience or salaries affect student performance. (7) Other studies have found stronger evidence of positive school and teacher effects on learning and labour market outcomes (8) In developing countries, a number of studies have found that teacher education and experience, as well as basic material resources do affect achievement, but other work has presented a mixed verdict on teacher and school effects. (9) Limited Definition of Quality One problem with these studies has been the narrow conceptualisation of teacher quality. Too often, teacher quality has been conceptualised simplistically, as easy-to-measure background factors thought to be linked to productivity such as teacher education or training, teacher salary or teacher experience. While identifying a mix of easy-to-measure and easy-to-manipulate inputs has a great deal of theoretical and policy appeal, the lack of consistent findings suggests the value of exploring alternative approaches. …